How can I stop my left hand being too loud?

[kriatina]

I was born left handed but grew up as a right handed person
which may or may not cause a problem...
I am just wondering how to stop the fingering of my left hand being too loud.
My left hand and arm are naturally dominant,
and because I grew up in a right handed manner
I am quite dextrous and fluid with my right hand,
but my left hand seems to create too much of a heavy bass tonality.
Has anyone come across this problem and are there
any special "tricks how to tackle the problem?

Thank you.

[iansinclair]

Welcome to a small but somewhat select club.

First off, be happy.  Since you are left hand dominant, you will have, as you go along, much less trouble with a lot of music than your more "normal" counterparts.  In fact, since you have been trained to be right handed in most things, you have the real advantage of probably being very nearly equally "dextrous" (!) with both hands.

This is NOT a problem!

The way I have found to work around this problem -- and it is quite real! -- is to work very hard on developing and practicing hand (and indeed finger) independence.  I have never found a "trick" that works, though.  I was fortunate enough to spend most of my musical life as an organist, where it doesn't matter, of course, but now that I'm retired and doing almost all piano...

I have to admit that although I love Bach and before on the organ, I don't really care for it on the piano.  That said, however, there is nothing like it for developing real independence as to volume and articulation between the hands, and so I keep working at it.  In the romantic music which I usually play now, though, I simply have to keep reminding myself to go easy on the left!

[faulty_damper]

First be certain that your piano is well-regulated and voiced.  It's possible your piano is just voiced too loudly in the bass and/or dull in the alto-treble.  If this isn't the case, then...

Second, learn to use the entire playing apparatus so to minimize finger movement.  If you over-rely on using your fingers to depress the keys, then the natural muscular strength of the fingers becomes apparent so the dominant hand becomes noticeably louder. By using the rest of the body, this difference can be eliminated and allow for greater control of tone.

[kriatina]

Thank you very much iansinclair and faulty_damper, for your kind explanations.

I shall exercise my finger independence and I shall also exercise more, to achieve greater control of tone. I think I do need more exercises because I mainly play composers like Bach, Haendel, Scarlatti, Corelli etc. and it is very noticeable, if both hands don't work in unison of tonality.

Thanks again from Kristina.

[j_menz]

I have to admit that although I love Bach and before on the organ, I don't really care for it on the piano. 

You really do need to start looking at some of the better transcriptions - you may be very pleasantly surprised.

@ kriatana -  Are you able to play pp through ff with each hand? I'm guessing you can.  That means the problem is not physical, you just need to concentrate and listen more and rebalance the sound image.

[kriatina]

You really do need to start looking at some of the better transcriptions - you may be very pleasantly surprised.

@ kriatana -  Are you able to play pp through ff with each hand? I'm guessing you can.  That means the problem is not physical, you just need to concentrate and listen more and rebalance the sound image.

Thank you j_menz,

My left hand is still a little "stronger", but yesterday I have already noticed
that if I concentrate and train myself to keep an eye and ear on this,
there is a great chance to correct it.

Thanks again to iansinclair, faulty_damper and j_menz,
your kind assistance has encouraged me very much .

Kind regards and thanks again from Kristina.

[indianajo]

You can stop inappropriate loudness of the dominent hand, by concious thought.  After a piece is learned, accentuating the correct part (usually the right top note) becomes part of your standard performance for that piece.  A fully learned piece, you can concentrate on the emotion of the performance and leave the mechanics (including top note emphasis) to your lower brain. The mechanics of the piano don't matter (if it will do a consistent pp, most that I've played will), you should control with your ears and brain which line of notes is the loudest.   
I was so left hand dominent, Mother assigned me piano lessons as a sort of home physical therapy. I had injured a finger of the right hand with a folding chair age three, and hardly ever used it.  Mother set me to twenty reps of  the Schmitt exercises (published by Schirmer) which emphasize strength building and independence of every finger. These were very useful to gaining control of my injured third finger. (the pad is scar tissue below the nail)   I also progressed through the usual John Thompson methods from pre-A through book one.
Then the professional teacher Mother hired moved me from Schmitt to the Edna Mae Berman excercise books which I learned from book one through book four. I then progressed on to Czerny exercises.   I was also doing more fun performance pieces of course, but "make the melody sing" was a standard instruction that kept me concious of my right hand.  I didn't need a lot of telling, it was a goal I agreed with however unnatural it was.
The teacher did allow me to play pieces where the left hand makes a significant contribution from time to time. Lecuona's Malaguena was a lot of fun with the crashing four octave run near the end.  
I continue to have my own specialties.  In my goal to "finish" Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as an adult, in the third movement are passages where there is one melody and two countermelodies going at once.  In my interpretation, each repetition of this section, a different melody or counter melody dominates.  So occasionally and in turn, one or the other left hand counter melody dominates.  This is an interpretation that you never hear on recordings, and I'm sure it would disqualify me from winning any contest, but I like it. Music is an art the expresses emotion, I can occasionally celebrate my difference.
Meanwhile, piano has helped me cope with right handed can openers, scissors, doorknobs, zippers, electronic enter key, in a righty dominated world.
Hope you have fun with your piano adventure.  

[kriatina]

Thank you, indianajo for your kind thoughts and advice.

I have started to think consciously about my left hand to make sure it is not dominant.
 
It is still a balancing act, because whilst I concentrate on my left hand,
I now have to make sure not to overdo it,
because now I also have to make sure that my left hand
is not getting too quiet all of a sudden ...

I agree with you, it is a good idea to study a piece, go through it and listen carefully,
in order to work out, which line of notes should be played the loudest etc.

I am sorry that you had the injury as a child and it is wonderful how your mother assisted you.

Thank you for writing down all the exercises to emphasize strengths building
and independence of every finger... I shall definitely look into this.

Thanks again from Kristina.